Today is very exciting for me. I have taken delivery of 2 hives, each containing 15-20,000 honey bees. They are now happily buzzing around in my garden collecting nectar and pollen and doing the things bees like to do. My 2 lovely queen bees are called Elizabeth and Victoria and are already busy laying loads of eggs. I will leave them to settle in for a week or so now and, when I next go into the hives I will take some photos of them to post on here.

Despite acquiring 35,000 new “pets”, I have managed to remove 20 things from my house which I don’t need:

1. A pair of waterproof trousers (I have another pair which fit me better and how many pairs of waterproof trousers does one woman need?)
2. A set of baby reins – youngest children (my twins) are now 6 1/2 so I don’t think they’d be prepared to be seen in them, even if I could squeeze them in to them.
3. A pair of bath taps – been in the garage for about 5 years.
4. Another shoe horn – where have they all come from?
5. A decorative tin which is very nice but not fabulous.
6. A too small jacket.
7. Some too small hats.
8. A body fat gauge. I can see it without making myself feel any worse by measuring it.
9. A cleaning smock. Bought with good intentions but never worn and there’s no point keeping something which I ought to use but don’t.
10. A too small rugby shirt.
11. Some odd paper party plates
12. A DVD which we have another one the same.
13. An old baby blanket. (but no babies).

All of these things have gone to the charity shop.

I have thrown away:

1. Some bent coat hangers.
2. Some rusty nail scissors.
3. A holey hoover pipe.

I have put in the recycling:

1. 3 out of date calendars
2. A pile of magazines which I will never have time to read.
3. A tatty old coat – I know I could wear it in the garden but I have another, slightly less tatty old coat which will do that job.

I have chopped up for firewood:

1. A broken wooden high chair – was it going to repair itself and become safe for all my babies?

So 13+3+3+1=20!

What on earth will I manage to find to clear out tomorrow?

I will spare you another photo of my overcrowded house today so here is one of my lovely dog, Ivy who has been dressed by my daughters, Esther and Martha. Ivy is scared of me in my beekeepers suit! Hopefully she’ll get used to it.